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Packers coach Mike McCarthy and QB Aaron Rodgers have five divisional games in their final seven contests.

The first half of the season has come and gone for the Green Bay Packers and the bye week could not have come at a better time.

The Packers have won their last four games but are dealing with an injury epidemic that goes beyond even what they faced in 2010 when they overcame the loss of 15 players to injured reserve and won their fourth Super Bowl title.

Could a similar fate be in store for the 2012 Packers?  That remains to be seen.  The Packers are only one game behind the Chicago Bears for first place in the NFC North and with five of their six division games remaining, all of the Packers’ goals for the year are still very much within reach.

Before we look ahead, let’s take one last look back at the good and the bad of the Packers’ first nine games of 2012.

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For a more in-depth discussion, listen to the podcast using the player below or download the podcast from the Packers Talk Radio Network on Itunes.

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Game Balls                                     

QB Aaron Rodgers

Something definitely is wrong with Rodgers.

OK, I can’t even TYPE that with a straight face.  Read more... (1640 words + 1 image, estimated 6:34 mins reading time)

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Green Bay Packers rookie LB Nick Perry is out for the rest of the 2012 season with a wrist injury.

The Green Bay Packers have announced that the team hasactivated tight end Andrew Quarless from the physically unable to perform (PUP) list and have placed rookie linebacker Nick Perry on season-ending injured reserve for a wrist injury.

Perry reportedly sought a second opinion on the wrist he injured earlier this season and apparently opted for surgery that will cost him the remainder of what was a promising rookie campaign.   With D.J. Smith and Desmond Bishop already out for the season and Clay Matthews dealing with a hamstring injury that could keep him out for a few weeks, the Packers find themselves dangerously thin at linebacker.   Rookie Dezman Moses will likely get a chance to prove that fans’ excitement over his potential is warranted.

As for Quarless, this is a moment many have been waiting for since he went down last December with a knee injury.  He was not ready for training camp so the Packers put him on the PUP list until this week.  It’s unclear how large of a role Quarless will immediately have, but if Jermichael Finley continues to struggle then it’s possible Quarless could earn some playing time along with Tom Crabtree.

Kris Burke is a freelance sports writer currently residing in Wisconsin. His work has been linked to by sites such as National Football Post and CBSSports.com. Follow @KrisLBurke

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TE Andrew Quarless will probably start the year on the PUP list.

The first NFL roster cut-down of the season is fast approaching. On Monday, August 27th, the Green Bay Packers will need to have trimmed their roster down to 75 players from their current total of 90.

Even though these are essentially the worst players on the team, the decision of who to cut is a tough one. Not only do Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson need to consider the skill of each player, but they also have to take into account the remaining depth they’ll have to work with for the remainder of the preseason. This being the case, the first roster cut-down can be a good time to declare some of the Injured Reserve (IR) or Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) players for the start of the season.

As a reminder, only players who did not practice at all during training camp are eligible for the PUP. They remain on the list for the first six weeks of regular season, after which they have a three-week window to return to practice. From the point at which the player returns to practice, the team has an additional three weeks to decide whether to elevate them to the 53-man roster, place them on injured reserve, or release them.

Here is a group of eight players who could possibly end up on one of these lists during the upcoming roster cut-down:

Physically Unable to Perform (PUP)  Read more... (944 words + 1 image, estimated 3:47 mins reading time)

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Packers with injuries fail their physicals

A good number of Packers players (including some surprises) failed their physicals this week and will not be able to participate in the first days of training camp. Here is a rundown on what is know about each player so far:

Charlie Peprah:  (Released by the Packers)  A lingering knee injury caused Peprah to fail his physical and the Packers quickly decided to release him. I suppose that speaks highly of the plethora of young safeties the Packers currently have on their roster and how the Packers feel about them.  For Peprah, his best time with the Packers was certainly the Super Bowl season, but his play last year was dreadful at times, and I was considering him likely to be a camp cut anyway.

Desmond Bishop: (PUP) Bishop please! Say it ain’t so!. Desmond has a calf strain suffered in his training session last week and was placed on the non-football related injury list. He’ll be back soon.

Derek Sherrod:  (PUP) Sherrod’s recovery from the broken leg has gone very well, according to Mike Mccarthy, and the Packers expect him to be ready “soon,”, which I would take to mean sometime in the next week or two.

Andrew Quarless: (PUP) No surprise here. The severity of the knee injury he suffered last Dec 4th makes him a longshot at best to even participate in camp. I’d say he’s a lock to never be activated in camp and be on the PUP list when the season starts.  Read more... (849 words + 3 images, estimated 3:24 mins reading time)

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Let’s go to the report card.

Offense: A
Aaron Rodgers was the MVP and the Packers scored whenever they needed to. This would have been an A+ if not for the sputtering performance in the playoff loss to the Giants.

Special Teams: B+
Mason Crosby had a career season and Randall Cobb took a couple kicks back for touchdowns. There were also very few moments where special teams coverage made me want to put my wife up in a hotel for the evening so I could destroy the house and go on a drunken rampage.

Defense: D-
No pass rush. Poor tackling. Giving up a ton of big plays. The only thing that prevented an F were forcing turnovers and doing a somewhat decent job of keeping teams out of the end zone at the end of drives (at least early in the season).

Grade Point Average: 2.67

Conclusion
An ‘A,’ a ‘B-plus,’ and a ‘D-minus.’ That doesn’t look so bad. Yes, the poor grade on defense stands out, but it’s not hard to envision a team with an ‘A’ offense and a ‘B-plus’ special teams going 15-1. The D-minus on defense really drags down the GPA, though. If I had told you that the 2011 Packers would have a GPA of 2.67, would you have guessed that they would finish 15-1?  Read more... (1258 words + 1 image, estimated 5:02 mins reading time)

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Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is the NFC North's, and probably the NFL's, best draft choice since 2005.Introduction

Introduction
As Packers fans, we hear a lot about building through the draft and developing young players. I thought it would be interesting to examine each team in the NFC North to get a better idea of how drafted players impact current rosters.

So as baseball season gets underway, I decided to celebrate by writing over 2,000 words about the NFL draft.

I came up with a baseball theme (sort of) to accomplish this task. I break down each team’s drafts from 2005-11 by putting draftees in the below categories. I chose 2005-11 because it encompasses Ted Thompson’s time as Packers general manager. Here are the categories and an explanation of each:

Current Starters
This one should be obvious. Which players drafted from 2005-11 are current-day starters with the team that drafted them?

Home Runs
Players who have turned into pro-bowl caliber players or superstars.

Strikeouts
Players drafted in the first or second round that never did much of anything. I limited this category to absolute busts. For example, Justin Harrell was a wasted pick. He’s a strikeout. A.J. Hawk, while failing to meet expectations, remains a starter, wasn’t a complete bust, and shouldn’t be considered a strikeout. In baseball terms, Hawk is probably a walk. Walks are useful and better than striking out, but nothing to get too excited about.  Read more... (2235 words + 1 image, estimated 8:56 mins reading time)

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Aaron Rodgers stock fell a bit during the playoff loss to the Giants, but it remains high heading into next season.

The Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl and there will be no more meaningful football games for the next six months. That’s six months to reflect on how a team that lost twice to the Redskins during the regular season could go on to knock off the mighty Packers in the playoffs and keep rolling all the way to the Lombardi Trophy.

Depressing.

It’s hard to find a silver lining, but if you’re searching for one, take a few minutes and look over the Packers roster. It’s pretty good. Go ahead and cross off some of the players you think won’t be around next season, and it’s still pretty good. This team is going to contend again next season, and probably for the next couple of seasons after that. At least Packers fans have something to look forward to.

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks at AllGBP.com evaluating and grading every player on the Packers roster. Those report cards are done now, and it’s time to put this season in the rearview mirror.

To get started, I put together a full roster stock report based on each player’s status heading into next season. To categorize each player, I used my own opinion mixed with how I think the Packers view that player.  Read more... (1632 words + 1 image, estimated 6:32 mins reading time)

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